Christmas

Our favourite biscuits to make (and eat) are gingerbread and for these we fill our homemade piping bag with royal icing. However once you know how to make your own, you can fill the piping bag with melted chocolate, frosting, whatever you fancy. Read on to find out how to make your own piping bag.

So we’ve been making rather a lot of these biscuits lately. My eldest wanted to make them for a school project and event, I made some for the school cake stall at their Christmas concert and I ran a class making them. Unfortunately we ran out of time to ice them and I’d really like to share that part of the process today so that you can have a go at home.

We made a special effort with the icing and I made up a stiff batch of royal icing (egg white and icing sugar) and some homemade piping bags.

I was blown away by the outcomes, they had really improved their technique from last time (probably about a year ago). I loved seeing the concentration on both girls faces, and listening to the unusual silence that accompanied the painstaking decoration process. This was a real feel good moment.

If you’d like my family friendly gingerbread recipe – you can receive it here by signing up for my newsletter

Why you should bake…

Here’s why I think making and decorating gingerbread men with your children is super good for everyone…

Family time
As well as being a sweet treat, gingerbread men must be praised because the process of making and decorating involves spending valuable time together.

Good quality ingredients
The ingredients that go into the biscuits are completely within your control. There are no added nasties to make the biscuits last longer, look better, hold together better, more crisp etc. You can include wholemeal flour, free range eggs etc according to your personal preferences / needs.

Nutritional education (you didn’t think I’d actually leave this out did you?
When you make treats yourself, your children can appreciate for themselves just how much sugar and fat goes into biscuits and later on they will be able to make informed decisions about how many they want to / should eat.

Numeracy skills
M practiced weighing out the ingredients independently. There are loads of ways you can include numeracy in your baking time with your children, but that’s a whole other blog post.

Literacy skills
Following instructions. There are many technical words in recipes and these can be a challenge to children. So here’s a good opportunity for you to start to demystify the world of baking.

Scientific understanding
In my class we talked about the jobs that different ingredients do and why we were using them in this recipe. E.g. bicarbonate of soda. The more you cook, and talk and ask questions the more they will pick up, sometimes subconsciously.

Improves handwriting (fine motor) skills
Icing the biscuits is an excellent way of practicing fine motor control skills, especially for children who struggle with handwriting. We made our own mini piping bags from greaseproof paper and cut a tiny nozzle. The girls had to concentrate really hard to get the designs they wanted. Their outcomes were so much improved from last year, it was really exciting to see. Find out how to make the piping bags here

This year I faced a dilemma; for the first time in the history of having children, mine don’t know what they want for Christmas!

…. and Christmas gift ideas for my kids are just not coming readily.

Imagine that! Does anyone else have a similar problem?

In terms of ‘things’ there isn’t anything they really want or need! So this year I’ve really had to put my Christmas Elf thinking cap on and get a bit resourceful. So I thought I’d share my ideas with you.

So now we’ve established that it’s not necessarily ‘THINGS’ we want this year, I’ve decided to think a bit out of the box.

Some of the things I’ve mentioned below are local to me, but I’m sure if you’re further afield there will be a range of similar options nearer to where you live.

Experiences:

For me, as a parent, it’s become more and more important to me to be spending time with my kids before they grow up and decide that I’m not cool enough anymore or I’m too old to do stuff with.

So I’ve come up with a lovely list of experiences that can be shared together.

Last year I bought membership to our new local theme park Dreamland and wanted this to be a stocking surprise, so I bought some gorgeous items from their gift shop and packed the membership cards up in a shoe box with the branded paraphernalia.

theatre tickets, a day trip to France, a weekend city break and theme park day tickets.

The positives of this type of gift are that they are something to look forward to once the Christmas glitter has gone, and they can be bonding experiences for families.

Photos can be taken during the experience and a montage created afterwards and framed as a memory.

Materials / tools to enable or encourage a hobby:

I’m all for encouraging my children away from their tablets and the TV. So any glimmer of an interest or hobby and I’m all over it. What better way to encourage this than by investing in their hobby.

I think Christmas is an excellent opportunity to buy really good quality materials and equipment that you wouldn’t normally consider spending out on during the year such as canvases, quality watercolour paints, a camera, football boots, specialist crafting equipment, roller skates, bike and sewing machine.

Here are some rollerskates that I totally recommend as they are size adjustable and an excellent price.

Thinking even further out of the box, why not put together something or somewhere that makes you child’s hobby even easier to access.

A pop up dark room?

A crafting desk or storage facility?

Personal space:

Ooh, how about creating a secret kid’s cave only to be revealed on Christmas morning? A treasure hunt leading your child to the scene of their new hideout?

It could be a shed in the garden that you secretly decorate inside and kit out with kid’s stuff like beanbags, bunting, battery operated lanterns and a do not enter sign on the door.

Or maybe you could cosy up the basement or cellar (if it’s in usable condition) with beanbags, TV and a mini fridge.

For younger children, what about an under the stairs hidey hole, or teepee? Children and teens love to feel independent and they love to have something to call their own.

Learn a skill:

Here’s a present that can last well beyond Christmas.

Why not book your child onto a slightly more unusual course in something they’ve not tried before.

I attended some wonderful bushcraft courses at Jack Raven Bushcraft in Ashford last year – here. They do organised group courses, family courses and also private bookings ranging from wood craft to cooking, to survival.

Talking of cooking…. I couldn’t write a post without including my own hobby.

Every child needs to learn to cook at some point, some are desperate to get cooking and sometimes parents just can’t face it happening in their own kitchen, or maybe don’t have the time?

I’m offering a six week cookery course on Saturday mornings in Ramsgate. A perfect pressie for grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, and parents to consider. I’ve thought about this quite a lot and whilst I’d love to receive something like this…

…It just wouldn’t feel the same without something to unwrap. So I’ve prepared a gift box. It’s basically a pizza style box with a personalised letter explaining the gift, and inside are some totally funky, tactile and smaller (for small hands) kitchen utensils along with some recipes to get started with. Find out morehere… http://makewithkate.co.uk/gift/

Do you think your child would like to receive this gift at Christmas?

Other courses you could buy into include climbing, horseriding, and cycling, skateboarding, dressmaking.

We have a lovely sewing shop here in Canterbury near to us that offers a wide range of courses, many for beginners and some especially for children.

I hope I’ve given you some inspiration for the child that thinks they have it all!

Please let me know of anything I’ve missed but could include.

I’m always on the lookout for a present that’s a bit different.

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